The Battalion: November 20, 2013

thebattalion l wednesday,

november 20, 2013

l serving

texas a&m since 1893

l first paper free – additional copies $1 l © 2013 student media

WHAT ABOUT THE BATS? Allison Rubenak

The Battalion anging upside down between the cracks and crevices of Kyle Field, the winged division of the 12th Man will need to seek residence elsewhere as a result of stadium renovations.

Michael Smotherman, associate biology professor, said there are an estimated 100,000 bats that have lived in the concrete stadium. While efforts will be taken to humanely keep the bats from inhabiting the new stadium, Smotherman said as migration season approaches and construction continues there may be a temporary influx of bats in the community.

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“Obviously we’re going to disturb some of their stuff, but we’re working every which way to make sure we don’t do any harm to them,” said Leo Goertz, athletic fields maintenance manager and Class of 1982. “We’re just trying to get them to relocate to a more suitable place where they can enjoy their doings and not create as much issues and problems as they do here in the stadium.”

Goertz said the bats typically avoid people but occasionally fly low at football games. He said the primary nuisance is the excrement they leave throughout the See Bats on page 2 William Guerra — THE BATTALION

diversity

football

LSU marks win-streak roadblock

‘Road Warriors’ put perfect away record on line James Sullivan The Battalion

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ince Texas A&M’s July 2012 realignment into the Southeastern Conference, the football program has remained perfect in road matchups, currently sitting at 10-0 away from Kyle Field, including 6-0 against the league.

The undefeated streak has generated a buzz around the locker room and a popular moniker among the players — ‘Road Warriors,’ a nickname the program even had printed on T-shirts. During A&M’s weekly press conference Tuesday at the Bright Complex, senior wide receiver Travis Labhart explained the

inside lifestyles | 2 Improv act arrives

player mentality behind an away game, noting the strong relationships that developed among teammates.

“When you go on the road, you have to realize it’s you and your teammates against the world,” Labhart said. “You have to embrace that opportunity. That’s when teammates become best friends—when there’s blood, sweat and tears.”

A&M will test its road streak Saturday at Tiger Stadium, known widely as Death Valley, with an SEC West divisional battle against No. 22 LSU, hoping to improve its 8-2 (4-2 SEC) record with less than a month until bowl selection.

Labhart, who played his final game in Kyle Field in A&M’s 5141 win over Mississippi State on Nov. 9, said that while the team is See Presser on page 4

Aimee Breaux The Battalion

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Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION

Senior receiver Travis Labhart says road matchups like Saturday against LSU create team bonding opportunities.

Class Council forms relationship with Bryan residents Megan Moore

Special to The Battalion

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basketball | 4 Men’s hoops beat PVAMU Sophomore guard Alex Caruso’s late three-pointer helps A&M to a 75-65 win over visiting Prairie View A&M on Tuesday night in Reed Arena.

Event planned at UT cancelled amid scrutiny

BOND ACROSS GENERATIONS

New York Neo Futurists will perform 30 plays in 60 minutes at 8 p.m.

Thursday in Rudder Theatre.

COURTESY

Frank and Janie Degelia stand in front of their house in Bryan in 1953.

‘Catch an immigrant’ game draws group ire

s some Aggies on the sophomore Class Council have found, service has a way of transforming tasks and to-dos into affection and friendship.

Frank and Janie Degelia have been living in the same Bryan house since 1953, but the couple recently needed help maintaining the house.

Noting this, four to six members of the sophomore council go to the Degelia home one Sunday each month as part of the council’s current TAMily project. The team of students usually dusts, vacuums and works in the yard to help with home upkeep.

One of these council members, Mary Crimmins, sophomore gen-

eral studies major and vice president of the Class of 2016, said she fell in love with the couple when she came across them at The Big Event last spring.

“The focus of TAMily project is to help people of the community with any needs they may have,” Crimmins said. “When Big Event came, it occurred to me that maybe we could take the TAMily project in a new direction.”

Crimmins said the couple was a perfect match.

“It’s not like [Mrs. Degelia] was helpless,” Crimmins said.

“She was right there with us. She was doing [chores] with us and it is not like she doesn’t want to do those things for herself.”

See Degelia on page 2

hile the Young Conservatives of Texas’ “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” event planned for Wednesday on the UT campus was cancelled, members of the Texas A&M Council for Minority Student Affairs gathered Tuesday night in the MSC to further establish their support for undocumented workers.

Members created posters with words of support for undocumented students in Austin and plan to promote pictures of their signs over social media Wednesday, the day the YCT’s mock immigration sting game was planned.

Melanie Garza, junior agricultural leadership and development major and council member, said the event came after reflecting on the organization’s purpose — helping College Station DREAMers, those who would qualify for the DREAM Act that would grant citizenship to undocumented residents, if enacted.

Nery Guerrero, executive board representative for the Council for Minority Student Affairs and senior nutritional sciences major, said the organization saw the game as disrespectful and demeaning to students, regardless of whether or not they are undocumented.

Guerrero said standing up and showing the demeaning nature of events like YCT’s leads to the cancellation of such events.

“We can’t do much to change everybody’s views, but at least those types of events won’t be held,” Guerrero said.

LAST CHANCE TONIGHT! Tickets available now at MSC Box Office.

STUDENT RUSH TICKETS ONLY $20!

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A Limited number of student rush tickets are available for ONLY $20 to tonight’s MEMPHIS performance in Rudder Auditorium! Hurry! Available only at the MSC Box Office. Please limit 2 tickets per student. Student ID is required. This offer not valid for tickets already purchased.

11/19/13 11:07 PM

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thebattalion

WORLD’S A STAGE Troupe performs alternative plays

Photo courtesy of Anto Nickel

“Too Much Light Makes the Baby go Blind” will be performed at 8 p.m. Thursday in Rudder Theatre.

Mikel Moon The Battalion

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hen the lights are extinguished in the theater, disbelief often goes with them as audience members willingly buy into fantastic story lines and characters. But in an effort to bring the real world to the stage, the New York Neo Futurists will perform 30 plays in 60 minutes grounded in realism.

New York Neo Futurists will perform “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” at 8 p.m. Thursday at Rudder Theater, finishing their Texas tour in College Station.

The Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts is sponsoring the show and managing the performers’ visits to University classrooms, said Rea Sampilo, marketing liaison for AVPA and a graduate performance studies major.

AVPA director Kirsten Pullen said the show is fast, funny and sometimes poignant. They use few props, a small set to make a scene and audience interaction.

“The audience chooses a script and the performers do it,” Pullen said. “They don’t play characters. They react as they would naturally react to the circumstances.

Every year, I go to New York City for a huge conference of the best in dance, music and theater. I saw ‘Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind’ and knew it

would be perfect for Texas A&M University.”

Pullen said the show’s speed and humor is similar to that of Saturday Night Live. Each performance is unique in content and audience feedback, she said.

“The New York Neo Futurists are always writing and performing new material,” Pullen said. “I don’t know which ones they’ll do and the order is totally decided by the audience.”

Sampilo said the selection is completely open to the audience.

“You’re seeing 30 plays in 60 minutes,” Sampilo said.

“And basically you’re given a list of all these plays and then you interact with the people on stage. All you have to say is number 27 and then they act it out for you.

Number 27 could be James Brown and that’s a play.”

Sampilo has not seen the show but has researched it.

She said she recommends watching the performance.

“It’s a surprise to me and it’s a really nice treat because it’s something new,” Sampilo said. “Art is a reflection of our society so it’s nice to watch all these performances and enjoy them and I heavily encourage all the professors and all the students that come to our performances.”

Tickets start at $5 and can be purchased at the MSC Box Office.

Welcome to the Riff Off

Jonathan Sheen — THE BATTALION

Senior economics major Justin Bailey leads a song Tuesday evening in the MSC for the a cappella riff off between Apotheosis and the Femmatas. Full story at thebatt.com.

Bats Continued from page 1

stadium.

“I think it’s fair to say that the football stadium probably artificially elevated the number of bats in our area over the past couple of decades,” Smotherman said.

Smotherman said the bats are Mexican free-tailed bats, the primary species in the College Station area. He said because there are few caves in east Texas, bats must seek out man-made structures such as parking garages, bridges and buildings to find a suitable habitat.

“They are gregarious,” Smotherman said. “[Mexican free-tailed bats] like to live in big groups, which isn’t true of all bats. So they need places where they can be with their family and friends.”

Smotherman said Kyle Field has been a popular home for the bats because they are attracted to stone structures, which have flexible thermal properties — staying cool during the day while trapping warmth at night. He said their numbers are highest in July and August when the heat is at a peak.

“You can get about 100 bats packed into one square foot,” Smotherman said. “So if you have one square foot of crack you can fit about 100 bats into that. If you walk around the stadium and start adding up how many cracks there are — how lengthy and how deep they are — the numbers get quite large, real fast.”

Goertz said the stadium has already made successful efforts to create a bat-free area. He said as construction progresses his team will continue to caulk in the smaller crevices and install nets in the third deck near The Zone.

Goertz said the nets are effective because they allow the bats to

Degelia Continued from page 1

At the end of each Sunday, what is more important than the clean house and trimmed garden is the relationship that has developed between the couple and the students who help, Crimmins said.

“We cleaned the fan blades, we dusted and vacuumed under the bed, we dusted in high places that she wasn’t comfortable getting,” Crimmins said. “For them that is perfect. What they need most is the physical help and the physical presence of college students being over there and showing a genuine interest in their lives.”

Faced with the task of coordinating the monthly projects with the Degelias after The Big Event, Crimmins said she found herself having to turn people away from service due to the overwhelming response among Class Council members wanting to serve the family.

“I had to tell them to only sign up for one time each semester,” Crimmins said.

Crimmins said students really enjoy serving and listening to the stories and wisdom of the husband and wife.

I think it’s in a way sad that the bats would have to move, but [Kyle Field is] not their natural habitat.”

— Scott Sladecek, junior supply chain management major

escape from the inside but they can’t return once they have left.

“The east side will be a construction area and I don’t think they’ll be too excited to run back in there with all the noise and activity gong on during the next couple of months,” Goertz said.

“They may migrate to the west side here and set up camp here for a year. Once we start doing the west side, then they’ll probably get chased out of their nesting places.”

Scott Sladecek, junior supply chain management major, said the bats are sometimes visible below the third deck at football games and he has heard them at night while walking to his car.

“They fly really fast, they’re kind of scary and they make highpitched noises and are loud,” Sladecek said. “All those kinds of things freak people out.”

Smotherman said it was hard to predict where the bats might go.

Sladecek said he wasn’t too concerned about the bats being able to find a habitat after they leave Kyle Field.

“I think it’s in a way sad that the bats would have to move, but that’s not their natural habitat,” Sladecek said. “I think nature works in many different ways so they’ll find some place else.”

Mrs. Degelia said she too values the conversation with the students as much as the extra help.

“I enjoy asking them questions, we always have a ball,” Mrs. Degelia said.

Mrs. Degelia said she makes a big chocolate cake for when the students come as a small token of appreciation.

“I just love them to death,” Mrs. Degelia said. “They have been so nice, polite, sweet.”

Jake Kobersky, Class of 2016 president and sophomore agricultural communications and journalism major, was in The Big Event group with Crimmins when they met the Degelias for the first time and has gone to serve once this semester.

“The TAMily project was organized last year and took donations and bought food for needy families,” Kobersky said. “This year we wanted to revamp it.”

Kobersky said serving the family is something members really want to do and get joy out of.

“It has just really made me appreciate the value of Texas A&M with selfless service and helping others,” Kobersky said. “It brings me joy — helping a family that has given back themselves.”

OPEN FORUM REGARDING FALL 2014 TRANSIT ROUTE CHANGES Routes 31, 33, 34, 35, 36

Monday, November 25 5:30pm

Memorial Student Center Room 2300E

Preview proposed changes transport.tamu.edu

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wednesday 11.20.2013

thebattalion

2013-2014 Texas A&M Campus Directory Listings of departments, administrators, faculty, staff, and other information about A&M.

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epartments: If you ordered Campus Directories and requested delivery, it will be made within the next few days. If you did not order Campus Directories, you may charge and pick them up the student media office in suite L400 of the msC. Cost is $4 per copy. please bring a student media Work Order. Call 845-2646 for info.

Lauren Garcia, horticulture graduate student and Graduate Student Council member, shares her opinion on plus-or-minus grading systems.

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tUDents and others may purchase directories for $4 plus tax each in msC L400 (by cash, check or credit card).

Hours: 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. monday–Friday.

Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION

GSC addresses issue of dissertation copyrighting Lindsey Gawlik The Battalion

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he GSC held its bimonthly meeting Tuesday night where members discussed pending business, including copyrighting on final dissertations.

GSC president and history graduate student, Brittany Bounds, said many questions had arisen between the faculty and the graduate students about the copyright policy.

“Many faculty believe that as an advisor they are entitled to the work that the graduate student does,” Bounds said. “Graduate students assume that if they have their name on the front page of a dissertation or thesis that that’s sufficient to maintain the copyright for that document.”

Bounds said the guidance offered by faculty advisors should not qualify for a co-copyright position as a dissertation must be considered original before it is approved by the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies.

A plus-or-minus grading system for students pursuing professional degrees and QEP Fellowships was also briefly reviewed. The system would assign a plus-or-minus distinction to each letter grade.

Officer reports also touched on graduate student tuition fees, holiday Starline travel, the parking garage debate and MSC programming.

The last GSC meeting of the semester will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 3 in Koldus 144 and will further address views on the plus-or-minus system system.

Students react to US Supreme Court decision The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would not block restrictions in a Texas abortion law that limited abortion options for women and led to the closing of Planned Parenthood clinics across the state.

On Oct. 28, sections of the law were ruled unconstitutional, however, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down that ruling on Oct. 31, sending the lawsuit to the Supreme Court. Tuesday, the Court announced it would not overturn the Circuit Court’s decision.

Maggie Holman, chair of Texas A&M College Republicans and senior political science and communication major, said the

Court’s ruling echoed similar values held by Republicans.

“It shows a strong commitment to family values, something that’s very important to the Republican Party,” Holman said.

Sam Taylor, junior philosophy major and head of publicity for Texas Aggie Democrats, said the decision was upsetting, although not unexpected.

“It’s unsurprising with the conservative leaning of the Supreme Court,” Taylor said.

“No one expected them to do anything else, but it’s still disappointing.”

Jennifer Reiley, city reporter

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A&M edges Prairie View, 75-65

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he Texas A&M men’s basketball team defeated Prairie View A&M 75-65 Tuesday night in Reed Arena. The win brought A&M its first 4-0 start since the 2009-10 season.

Sophomore guard Alex Caruso finished with a complete offensive and defensive game, scoring a team-high 15 points along with four assists. Defensively, he grabbed six steals and blocked three shots.

Late in the second half, Caruso hit A&M’s first three-pointer of the night to slow a late secondhalf run by Prairie View A&M, curbing a surge by the Panthers. Senior guard Fabyon Harris added another on the next possession, sealing the win for the Aggies. “[A&M] was 0-6 [from beyond the arc] for the first half, but they knocked down two clutch shots when it counted,” said Byron Rimm II, Prairie View A&M head coach. “I commend coach and the guys who knocked down the shots.”

Texas A&M showed strong defense, forcing 18 turnovers off of 11 steals and seven blocks. The Aggie defense also held Prairie View A&M to 24of-57 on 42.1 percent shooting from the field.

On offense, the Aggies shot 2-of-13 from threepoint range. A&M made up for it with its inside presence, scoring 36 points in the paint while making consistent shots at the foul line, shooting 71.1 percent.

Redshirt sophomore forward Antwan Space contributed a 12-point performance while also grabbing four rebounds. Fellow junior college transfer Jones added 12 points and five rebounds of his own.

Texas A&M will take on Sam Houston State at 4 p.m. Sunday at Reed Arena to start the Corpus Christi Challenge.

Presser Continued from page 1

anticipating a powerful environment, he expects Kyle Field to remain “second to none.”

“I always see [Tiger Stadium] on TV, but I’ve never had the opportunity to go down there,” Labhart said. “It’s one of those stadiums that’s like Kyle Field. I’m biased, but I think Kyle Field is second to none — but they’re rowdy. They do a great job of backing their team.”

Senior running back Ben Malena said Tiger Stadium stood out as one of the toughest fields to leave with a win, especially in a conference game late in the season.

“It’s a tough environment,” Malena said. “Probably one of the top-five toughest for a team to go in there and win. To go into Death Valley and win, you need to really beat those guys.”

Under second-year head coach Kevin Sumlin, A&M has sought to simulate crowd noise and effects during practice, using speakers blaring different genres of music. Entering LSU preparation week under the shadow of Death Valley, the speakers’ effects trains the players to perform under high-decibel levels, becoming crucial to creating game-like situations.

Offensive coordinator Clarence McKinney said the noise factor has been key in simulating crowd noise and should play a role in how his offense runs on Saturday.

“The music, for us, has always been a part of helping us deal with distractions and deal with noise,” McKinney said.

“It’s not just to get the guys dancing, we use it as a distraction. When you’re on the road, the loudest part of the stadium is when the game is at its most crucial point.

We’ve played in some loud stadiums, but we just have to go out and execute.”

As for the Texas A&M-LSU rivalry — the Aggies’ strongest non-conference op-

Yomi Adenuga — THE BATTALION

Sophomore guard Alex Caruso attempts a lay-up during A&M’s 75-65 win over Prarie View A&M Tuesday in Reed Arena.

ponent prior to joining the SEC — A&M will visit Death Valley for the first time since 1994. Sitting on the wrong side of the 28-20-3 record versus the Tigers, the Aggies will be searching to close the gap against the nationally-ranked squad.

The rivalry, though, is just another game for many of his players, as a majority were just learning to walk last time A&M visited Baton Rouge, Sumlin said.

“We’ve got kids from Louisiana, and they’ve got kids from east Texas and Houston,” Sumlin said. “For our current roster, last time we went over there, these guys were just born. Everybody remembers that used to be a heck of a battle. It’s a little different for our current players than it is maybe for former students and fans.

That was 18 years ago.”

In last season’s game, starting quarterback Johnny Manziel struggled against an LSU defensive front that produced seven NFL Draft selections — including two first-rounders — as the unit forced the future Heisman Trophy winner into season-lows in both quarterback rating (82.5) and rushing yards (27).

McKinney said the LSU defense has “reloaded” after losing much of its talent in the draft and will serve as a challenge for the A&M offense throughout the game.

“It’s really another day in the life in the SEC — a bunch of big, fast, athletic guys, and they’re deep with them,” McKinney said. “You saw what they lost last year from one of the best defenses in the country and they just reloaded.”

Defensive coordinator Mark Snyder said his unit has continued to improve, but that the key to shutting down the LSU offense would center around either creating turnovers or generating thirddown stops, a category the Tigers lead the nation in.

“We’ve got a heck of a challenge in front of us,” Snyder said. “This is a really good offense. One thing we did last year was get off the field on third down against these guys. We didn’t create any turnovers, but we got off the field. And they’re really good on third downs this year so it’s going to be a challenge.”

Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION

Head coach Kevin Sumlin addresses the media during Texas A&M’s Tuesday press conference at the Bright Complex.

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